About

Waterrock Studio is the independent interaction design and composition practice of Paul Chávez, a Chicano designer and composer whose work merges art and technology. Chávez founded the studio after a tenure at Arup and Harman, where he led experience design for interactive products and environments. He also serves on the board of Fulcrum Arts.

His AV career began under sound system designer Rolly Brook, co-founder of McKay Conant Brook, and included systems design for the Thousand Oaks Center for the Performing Arts, Getty Center and other cultural and entertainment venues.

Frustrated by how difficult AV systems were to use, Paul turned to the emerging user-centered design movement, drawing on thinkers like Donald Norman and Alan Cooper. He brought that thinking into Harman Professional Group (JBL, dbx, BSS, AKG, Crown), founding and leading the company's UX/UI design team in 2015, then directing a global team based in Bangalore. The group reimagined portable PA systems through the Connected PA initiative and built a cloud-based suite integrating AMX, Harman audio, and Martin Lighting, earning SXSW and NAMM TEC award nominations. He holds four patents from this period, including a facial-detection system for directional loudspeaker control.

From 2018 to 2026, Paul was an Associate Experience Designer at Arup, designing interactive environments for cultural and civic clients. He served as technical director for NOW Art's Luminex and Attune events in Los Angeles, contributed to Refik Anadol's Dataland, and wrote on rethinking digital buildings to strengthen the connection between people and the more-than-human world.

Paul remains active in the Los Angeles creative community as a composer, instrumentalist, and sound designer, often working under the project name FeltLike. His music, rooted in Rasquachismo's ethic of making the most from the least, spans solo guitar, percussion and found objects, and electronic soundscapes. He earned a BA in Music Composition from UC Santa Barbara, studying with John Carbon, Hagar Kadima, and Ann Hamilton. He has composed for choreographers including Oguri and Stephan Koplowitz, and collaborated with musicians Mark Dresser, Carmina Escobar, Nels Cline, and The Edge, with work appearing at the Guggenheim Museum, Grec Festival, and REDCAT.